> Students were asked a series of brain teaser questions. One group of students was told that the questions were invented at their university; the other group was told they were invented in a far away university. Thinking that the test came from far away somehow raised the creativity of the subjects. They answered more questions correctly.
Sheer tripe. Out of two groups, one is going to do better. If the first group had just happened to do better, we'd be reading an article about how thinking something is "close" makes it more "concrete" and raises your creativity, because it's easier to think of things that are tangible -- or whatever other Just-So story they'd invent. The second group didn't have its creativity "raised"; it just happened to be the group that won the coin flip.
I have the opposite theory.